Accepted!

As you know, last Saturday I returned to Belgium with my head full of Chur, snow and apartments. I thought I had it all figured out. On Monday though, I heard from the office in Vaduz that my address had to be registered - it didn't do to just state that 'yeah yeah, I do live in Chur'. Silly me, I should've known.
I learned that if I brought in all the paperwork in the office on Wednesday, I could start working on Monday. Unfortunately I was still in Belgium, amidst all my possessions at that time ...

So I hurriedly finished packing and, without even saying all my goodbyes, I left again for Chur on Wednesday, 11 January. The drive started off grey in Belgium, went over wet in France and turned to sunny in Switzerland. When nearing Chur I had a spectacular view of the snowy mountains with the pinkish skies laying on them, and clouds hanging in the valleys. A smile slid across my face spontaneously - and I love it when smiles do that to me :). The image reminded me of the Remarkables in Queenstown, New Zealand, which I still love so much.


I checked into the same hostel I had been in last week. I had a meeting that evening with Oral, the guy from the shared house that I had set my mind to, and this time I would also meet the girls, Claudia and Eva.
I was very tired after a full day's driving on my own, but I had a good time anyway with Oral and his crazy friend Leah. We had dinner and laughed and talked a lot.
Later in the evening the girls arrived, and we seemed to hit it off immediately. We had a short talk and almost immediately agreed that I could take the room. It will be a bit shuffling with me moving in too early, but that will be alright. I'm used to sleeping on sofas and in hostels by now.

With the address settled, the 'only' thing left to do was to go and register it in the Chur city council (or rather: the 'einwohnerdienste') and send it to the office. Unfortunately, that is not the end of the story - how could it be? :).
I went to the city council in the morning and found someone who spoke English - hurray, hurray! The friendly man told me to fill in a form, get my working contract, my passport, a picture and ... of course ... a section of the form had to be filled in by the office. So, with all my stuff still sitting in my car, I had no choice but to drive to Vaduz for this form.
Luckily Gabriele - my partner in crime at the office - was very welcoming. She greeted me with a very jolly "Do you have time? Like an hour or two? We have some forms to fill in." :).
Of course I had time, so we set right to it - until my soon-to-be colleagues decided to go for lunch and I joined them. Delicious, cheap-ish Thai food in Liechtenstein, you all have to experience it. The place, called Phuan Thai, is actually a home: the dining space is the living room, and the kitchen is the actual house kitchen ... There's only restricted choice but the servings are huge. Cute!
In the mean time I got to know a few of the new colleagues and that was very nice as well. I can't wait to actually get started!

Back at the office, Gabriele and I finished the papers and then it was time to get back to Chur, to the city council. The friendly guy was still there and was surprised to see that I had brought everything with me - apparently people tend to forget one or two things when they want to register in Chur.
With a big smile, he got out his stamp and stamped off the form - there it is, I am a resident of Chur in Switzerland!


From the city council I went to Manor, a shopping centre, where I could find Oral, Leah and yet another friend of Oral's, Kamilla. We had a little wander around town - how I love the clean, fresh, cold air! - and ended up at his (or should I say: my?) apartment again. I got to talking to Kamilla, who is an Erasmus student here in Chur, and we may go snowboarding on Saturday, yay! Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Leah, who is leaving for Italy tomorrow morning.

Life in Chur kicked off well and at full speed. I have a room to call my own, a job to look forward to and a few contacts to keep in touch with around here. In the mean time I enjoy hearing every gossip, great and small from Belgium and everywhere in the world, so don't hesitate to contact me. I'll send you some fresh mountain air in return!

PS: address and phone number - when I have one - will be given on request :).